Dusky Celadwen
Xenochiroptera gladius

Recently discovered, we have managed to capture and clone this organism in its adult and juvenile forms. Surface scans reveal that despite the size and colour disparity between the two forms, they are indeed the same xenofauna, implying some sort of pupae transitional phase, though thus far the clones have proven too degraded to successfully complete a metamorphosis. Both adult and juvenile forms are covered in their central body area in a layer of ablative chitinous armour, likely designed to protect them against predators, though what predators we cannot currently say. Despite their size and apparent lack of aerodynamic streamlining, they manage to keep themselves aloft simply by dint of their enormous and efficient muscular structure, evolved to take advantage of the dense atmosphere of their home planet. Further studies needed.
----

Clearly fancier than it needs to be, but here's the gist of it:
- Adult and juvenile forms (with plans for a lifecycle)
- Covered in armour attachables (need tweaking for strength)
- Pretty much, they're just animated dropships that look like they're flapping wings.

Still needs doing:
- Sounds (open hatch = roar, etc)
- Proper wounds (got some temporary ones, but need to tighten them up)
- Gibs (corpse falling from air, blood splash, etc)
- Lifecycle (still rather nebulous at the moments, but pretty much: Adult - Egg - Juvenile - Pupae - Adult)
------

Crossposted from DST Corp forums. Pretty much, right at the moment, I need some help completing the life cycle. I have it so the adults lay eggs, and the infants pupate into adults. I just need to figure out how the heck to connect them together and loop it infinitely. I did not want to release this in this early of a stage, but my hands are tied, so I'll see if you guys can help at all.

How about ...
An emitter that explodes and kills the Adult and drops an egg (emitter decays) , emiter go boom and drop juvenile and the emitter decays ...

Er... no need to kill the adult at all. It just has an emitter that drops eggs that open to let juvies out. The problem is that I have to call something multiple times in the code to make it loop forever, and I just don't know how to do so effectively.

Well, I'd do it, if your code made any sense :P

I just can't tell what's safe to delete and redo and what isn't.

Lol, seriously, take a crack at it, if you want. If you can get it to loop, I can make it all pretty later. Whatever sacrifices are needed to make it work are acceptable. And yes, my code is messy and horrible at the moment.

I think this is a really cool idea, and it's a nice looking monster.
But I don't think there's any need to make babies turn into adults, that'd happen over a LONG period of time.

[EDIT] Yup. Just stuck my head up my ass. You know what your doing here.

I just checked it out, recursion seems right. I am pretty sure that its the pupa state that is ♥♥♥♥. Check that for bugs (har har).
Also, you should make the code work before adding bling next time, makes it a A LOT easier to debug(I agree with Grif this is farkin' confusing)

Seems to me the Emitters aren't starting when one of these guys are spawned.

If you place a Celadwen Infant: It spawns a pupa, then a Celadwen Adult (Actually - it spawns 4 pupas before it comes to an untimely demise.). The Adult, however, does not lay eggs.

A placed egg: Changes to a Celadwen Infant, but this infant doesn't spawn pupas.

A placed Adult: Lays eggs, which become Infants, but these do not spawn pupas.


I understand emitters get started when A) something is bought, or B) something is triggered. Maybe going for an old-fashioned breakwound could kick start each leg of the process?


Btw, as a side note, these look awesome! Great stability, and nice sprites.

+nine thousand respect for that.
Djinn: Didn't p3lbox make an eternal loop? Take a look at his gun thing.

Yup, it was one of the first things I did when I decided to start doing this project. The only thing is that this is a way more complicated implementation of the technique, and I'm not good enough at the theory of it to properly make use of it. So I suppose what I'm saying is: if you HAVE got a good grasp of the theory, if you do it I'll both credit you both in the post and by naming one of the animals/plants after you (after all, the reproductive system will have been the foundation for them anyway.

Also yes I realize it is silly to have animals reproducing in that short a time frame, but consider this: Is it more fun to shoot two animals, or an infinite supply?

That is a brilliant idea. I imagine just waiting for a bit after firing the gun many people would decide it would be a good idea to "contain" the species.

Very Metroidy too.

This is a game involving a brain in a jar, so I wouldn't worry about the realism of the life cycle timing. Instead, I would worry about the gameplay balance of it.

I wish I could help, but I don't mod anymore, and I don't see any enjoyment in starting again. Good luck anyhow.

This reminds me of the zerg.

Good show.

Yeah, I suppose you're right.
Maybe they should lay eggs slower though, because if they all do that, you'll get up to 8 of the things all reproducing at a ridiculous rate.

I agree egg laying is too quick, but for now the quick egg-laying is easier to test. Once the cycle actually works, he can balance it.

I've been playing with breakwounds, but no luck so far. I never actually used one. Does anyone know if by b20 we can still code a broken-at-spawn wound?

Grif? You're a resident master?